"What do you mean he's sick again?" Roy shouted for the umpteenth time. He was borderline losing it, finger jabbing the chest of doctor in front of him for emphasis. Somehow he thought that maybe if he got loud enough he'd get a different answer.

"I've told you, and I'm getting sick of telling you," the doctor replied testily, brushing off Roy's finger like it was an irritating fly on his lapel. "I even warned you when you started coming here: sometimes, the medications don't work properly. In this case, the antibiotics we started Mr. Elric out on are no longer combating his fever—well, at all really, and it's spiked. We're putting him on a new strain now to see if that helps. I hope that gets through your thick skull because I'm not repeating myself again. We're doing everything we can to help Mr. Elric, and quite frankly you're wasting my valuable time making me say this over and over."

"But he was fine yesterday!" Roy insisted desperately. There had to be some kind of mistake.

"Roy," Alphonse piped up hoarsely from his seat in the waiting room. "Leave it." He'd been sitting there since the doctor first walked in to deliver the news, having just about collapsed upon hearing that Ed's state was declining. Those were the first words he'd spoken in the entire ten minutes Roy had been arguing with the doctor, which was maybe why he listened to the younger man.

Biting his tongue, Roy nodded and sat down as well, though his nerves were still so wracked he couldn't stay still. He settled for bouncing his leg.

"You can still go in and see him, though I doubt he's conscious," the doctor said, a little more kindly now that Roy was out of his face. "Now, if you'll excuse me."

The waiting room grew quiet, aside from the faint tapping of Roy's heels. He couldn't bring himself to speak, anymore, out of sheer terror. Because there was just one little thought nagging at him: what if this was all his fault? He was the one who'd made Ed move yesterday to sit with him. It hadn't been much activity, but for someone as sick as Edward was, maybe it had been enough. Roy couldn't stop thinking that maybe his insistence had made Ed exert himself more than necessary. That could make it harder for his body to fight this thing. Stupid, stupid, stupid! All because he wanted to be closer to Ed.

Roy gulped. Closer. Yeah. The second the older Elric brother had confessed his murky sexuality it was like a light over his head had flashed on: AVAILABLE! And then with the engagement ending…the sign turned neon. It was like Roy couldn't be rid of it. Something about Edward was just so enticing to him, it'd always been that way, so Roy jumped at the opportunity to explore something more. Ugh, that was so gross of him. He couldn't even fucking wait until the younger man was out of the hospital for crying out loud. What did that say about him as a person? And now maybe he'd made Ed worse. If Edward…no, he couldn't even think that.

At this point, the carpet was swimming. Tears? No. No, dizziness. He couldn't catch his breath. He almost couldn't believe what was happening, though he'd experienced this before. A panic attack. Roy hadn't had one of those since he started to restore what he'd destroyed in Ishval, but maybe this was enough…he took a deep breath, hoping Alphonse didn't notice him freaking out this much. Maybe it was insanely selfish, but he didn't want to explain that he'd found a way to be closer to Ed, and that might be inevitable if Al started asking questions. Yet another reason he was sort of a despicable human being.

"Hey!" Oh. Alphonse was shaking him. "Roy, calm down."

So yeah, his breakdown was evident. "How?" he croaked. "He was doing so well—"

"And I'm sure he'll be fine once this medicine kicks in."

This didn't make any sense. The world had literally flipped upside down. Roy took another shaky breath—it was times like this when he really needed Lieutenant Hawkeye around. Her bluntness generally helped his anxiety wind down. "This is ridiculous. I should be the one comforting you right now—how are you so calm about this?"

"I'm not," Al admitted softly. "I'm just…bottling it up, I guess. I'm scared, but at the same time…at the beginning of all this, the doctor said that the first antibiotic might not even work. And Ed made it two weeks on that. This is a bump in the proceedings, but it just makes sense to me that if he made it this far he'll be okay again once they find another medicine that works."

That was logical. Roy could hold onto that. A minute or so later and he was feeling much more himself—still guilty and worried as hell, but more composed at least. "Thanks, I needed that. Sorry to, ah, flip out there," he muttered, cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

"Nah, it's nothing," Alphonse replied, waving away the gratitude. "I'm surprised, though. I mean I know you worry, but like…why so much, if you don't mind me asking?"

Hmm. Somehow "I've kinda got the hots for your brother and since Winry's a no-go I intend to be the rebound" didn't seem like the thing to say in this situation. Realistically, that wasn't even an entirely correct statement. If Roy was being honest and fair with himself, he wanted a little more than that, but with Edward's current condition and his possible role in it he was in no mood to be gentle on himself. Still, he couldn't say that out loud. Instead Roy went with, "Ed's growing on me." Short, sweet, and not at all a lie.

"Uh huh." Al, however, was just as smart as his brother, and didn't seem convinced by such a bland explanation. But unlike Ed, Alphonse wasn't one to push in this sort of situation, so he didn't pursue the topic further, jumping to more important matters. "So do you think you're okay enough to see him? I mean I know he's sleeping but I'd still like to be able to see how he is, I can't stand just being out here. I can go alone though, if you'd rather wait here…?"

"No, no, I'll come," Roy replied hastily, standing up. "I'll be fine." And just to prove it, he led the way through the door into the quarantine center.

It was much busier than they had become accustomed to. Several nurses and doctors were clustered by the monitors, examining Ed's stats and conferring quietly. In the cube itself, Edward was alone, but crowded by extra IV's.

Roy's footsteps became heavier as they drew closer, and Al slowed as well; as much as he was trying to keep his distress from showing, Alphonse wasn't the best at hiding his emotons. Edward was bundled up in blankets and still shivering. He slept, but not peacefully—though his body was so tightly wrapped he was essentially immobile, Ed's head whipped from side to side restlessly. His face was red and a sheen of sweat shone on his forehead.

"Sweating," Al murmured, his voice shaking a little. "That's good, right?"

"Yeah," Roy confirmed, quick to jump on any positive note. "Yeah, it means his body's fighting off the fever. If he's sweating, it means the fever is at least trying to break. If he wasn't…it'd be bad."

Seeing that did, oddly, make Roy feel better. It made it easier to believe in Alphonse's conviction that another medicine would restore Edward to health. Yet at the same time, his heart just lurched, seeing Ed so distressed. Whether or not it was right of him to pursue the older Elric brother at this time, Roy felt so wrong being on this side of the glass. If his aim was to end up dating Ed, he should definitely be in there patting a wet cloth on Edward's head and telling him everything would be okay. Not being able to do so left him rather achy inside.

Roy stepped forward the last few steps necessary and leaned against the glass. Alphonse stayed back, and Roy had a feeling he was taking advantage of the slight distance between them to let one or two nervous tears leak out. It had to be hard for Al. Sure, Roy liked Ed, but he and Alphonse had been each other's support for years. With that kind of bond…it was a wonder to him that Al was functioning as well as he was.

Like a wordless agreement, both men moved to sit down in the chairs available. They were, obviously, settling in for the long haul. Roy had no intention of leaving until he was satisfied that Edward would be fine, and he doubted Al did either.

Ed was more than a little confused when he woke up. He could hardly move his arms, and he didn't really remember anything after saying goodbye to Roy…was it yesterday? It felt like he might be moving through water rather than air. It could have been a week ago for all he knew. It almost looked like it, with the number of instruments they'd packed back around him. Plus he was cold. And clammy. Ugh.

Blinking sleep from his eyes, Edward noticed the two figures slumped against each other outside the walls of his cube. And while waking up feeling this off was nerve wracking enough, realizing that Al and Roy had fallen asleep here scared him even more. Whatever had happened to him must have been bad. "Hey!" he rasped, coughing to clear his voice. One positive: as bad as he felt, he didn't have that sore throat back. When neither of them stirred, Ed tried again. "Guys!"

They both jolted upright at that, eyes widening when they realized he was the one shouting. Both Alphonse and Roy jumped up, letting out gleeful exclamations, and Roy almost tripped on his own boots trying to get up to the glass.

"Brother! You're awake!"

"Thank God…!"

"Jeez," Ed wheezed, trying to keep them in his range of vision without having to sit up. Along with everything else, he was tired, like he'd just run a marathon or kicked someone's ass. "Was it that bad, that you'd be thanking some nonexistent shit? What happened?"

"The medicine stopped working," Al explained. He put his hands over his mouth for a moment, overwhelmed. "Sorry, I was just so worried…Your fever spiked like you wouldn't believe. It took all day for this other antibiotic to kick in and bring it back down. We were just about to go to let you rest now that we knew you were more stable…"

"Holy shit," Ed rasped. "'All day?' What time is it?"

"Midnight," Roy answered faintly. The older man looked like he might pass out from shock and relief. "I had to call in some favors to get them to let us stay this long, but we were so scared…" No kidding. Alphonse seemed exhausted but happy now that Edward was at least awake and talking, but the Colonel's still looked like he'd been hit with a bus.

"You okay?" he queried gently, tilting his head to the side.

The other man tried to deflect the question. "You're the one who still has a slight fever and is stuck in quarantine. You shouldn't be worried about whether I'm okay."

Well, that was true, but it was in Ed's nature to worry about other people. Obviously he wasn't getting a straight answer form the Coloenl, so Edward turned to his brother. "Al?"

"Actually, he had a panic attack in the waiting room," Alphonse admitted. A sly grin quirked at the side of his mouth, and he added, "We've both been worried, Brother, but Roy says you've been growing on him and that's why he's been so out of sorts."

It was a good thing Ed had a fever, or else his blush might have been noticeable. Yeah, he supposed the flirting from before could be called that. Still, that was kind of a lame excuse for having an honest panic attack over a high temperature. "That's no reason to freak out though."

Al shrugged, and Roy finally felt the need to step in and explain himself a little more. "I, ah, thought you might have overexerted yourself, Ed," he mumbled, looking at the ground. Oh. Edward understood in an instant. Roy had been blaming himself this whole time! He probably thought that since he'd discovered a way for them to sit a little closer, he'd made Ed sicker. It's what Ed would be worrying about, were the tables turned. Still…why not just explain that outright?

His brother was apparently wondering the same thing. Alphonse looked back and forth between them, slowly crossing his arms. "I'm missing something. And I'm not sure I like that. Since when do you two have secrets together?"

As much as he preferred to share things with Al, Edward thought in this case it was better to confer with Roy first. Especially considering he wasn't sure why it was supposed to be a secret…or at least, all of it. They could tell Al about sitting closer without having to talk about exactly what was said…but if Roy wasn't going to, Ed would behave and follow along. For now. So instead of explaining anything at all, he teased, "That's what happens when you leave me to plan a party!"

"Brother—"

"Al, maybe we should go," Roy interrupted. "It is really late…"

Uh oh. Ed shut his mouth tight, waiting for the shits storm to start. Alphonse uncrossed his arms, planting his hands on his hips and stepping forward so that he was thoroughly in Roy's space. And not like Edward himself had been. This was more violent.

"You are not trying to pull that on me are you?" Al said, a hint of a threat in his voice. "You can't use such a lame excuse just because you two are hiding something from me!" He turned to Ed, who gulped. "And you! What has you more eager to cover the Colonel's ass than talk to your brother?"

"It's not like that, Al," Edward corrected hurriedly. "I'm not trying to keep anything from you, I just…I don't understand the situation myself actually. I want to talk to Roy before I say anything because I don't want to tell you something and have it be incorrect."

His brother snorted. "You mean you need time to get your story straight." Seemingly despite himself curiosity leaked into Alphonse's voice. "Jeez, you must have really gotten into something while I was gone."

"Err…yeah, I guess you could say that." Ed was definitely blushing now, and even if that weren't noticeable, his heart monitor gave his embarrassment away. "And I promise I'll tell you every excruciating detail as soon as it makes sense to me, okay?"

"Fine," Alphonse pouted, finally giving in. "But neither of you are in my good books until you I get the story."

"Okay, okay," Ed agreed, laughing lightly. "Now that that's settled, you really should go. You both need your sleep. I'll see you tomorrow, guys."

"Actually, we won't be back until the day after. To give you some rest," Al corrected. "That's okay, right?"

Normally, Edward would have complained that he wasn't getting the attention he deserved, but he was actually having trouble keeping his eyes open. Perhaps a day to sleep would be good for him. "Yeah, that's fine. I'm no fun like this anyway."

"Okay, as long as you're sure. Goodnight, Brother!" Al waved, beginning to walk towards the door. Roy, however, lingered, just watching him. To Ed it seemed as though the other man were drinking in the sight of him relatively healthy. "Oh, no!" Alphonse shouted, realizing he was alone. He stomped back, pushing Roy ahead of him towards the exit. "I missed one day and something went down, and I'm not giving you the chance to make that happen again! I don't like being out of the loop like this."

Chuckling, Ed watched as the duo exited the room. Sure, a day to sleep would be good, but a day to sort everything out would be better.